Quantum state resolution of the C${}_{60}$ fullerene

Abstract

The remarkable physical properties of buckminsterfullerene, C${}_{60}$, have attracted intense research activity since its original discovery. Total quantum state resolved measurements of isolated C${}_{60}$ molecules have been of particularly long-standing interest. However, such observations have to date been unsuccessful due to the difficulty in preparing cold, gas-phase C${}_{60}$ in sufficiently high densities. Here we report high resolution infrared absorption spectroscopy of C${}_{60}$ in the 8.5 $\mu$m spectral region. A combination of cryogenic buffer gas cooling and cavity-enhanced direct frequency comb spectroscopy has enabled the observation of quantum state resolved rovibrational transitions. Characteristic nuclear spin statistical intensity patterns provide striking confirmation of the indistinguishability of the sixty ${}^{12}$C atoms, while rovibrational fine structure encodes further details of the molecule's rare icosahedral symmetry. These observations establish new possibilities in the study and control of emergent complexity in finite-sized quantum systems such as fullerenes.

arXiv commentMain text: 15 pages, 4 figures, 1 table. Supplementary Materials: 4 pages, 1 figure, 1 table

References in corpus (6)

• Mid-Infrared Frequency Comb Fourier Transform Spectrometer
• Cavity-enhanced direct frequency comb spectroscopy
• Continuous probe of cold complex molecules with infrared frequency comb spectroscopy
• Quantum state resolution of the C${}_{60}$ fullerene
• Phase-stabilized 100 mW frequency comb near 10 μm
• C60 as a probe for astrophysical environments

Cited by in corpus (31)

• Frequency comb spectroscopy
• 20 years of developments in optical frequency comb technology and applications
• Quantum state resolution of the C${}_{60}$ fullerene
• Quantum state manipulation and cooling of ultracold molecules
• Rovibrational Polaritons in Gas-Phase Methane
• Nonlinear silicon waveguides generating broadband, spectrally engineered frequency combs spanning 2.0-8.5 um
• The infrared spectrum of protonated buckminsterfullerene, C60H+
• Dual-comb cavity ring-down spectroscopy
• Optical Frequency Comb Fourier Transform Spectroscopy of ${}^{14}$N${}_2$${}^{16}$O at 7.8 μm
• Mid-infrared frequency combs at 10 GHz
• Quantum phase interference in a fullerene-based molecular qutrit
• Mid-infrared frequency comb with 6.7 W average power based on difference frequency generation
• Cryogenic Buffer Gas beams of AlF, CaF, MgF, YbF, Al, Ca, Yb and NO -- a comparison
• Data availability and requirements relevant for the Ariel space mission and other exoplanet atmosphere applications
• A versatile platform for gas-phase molecular polaritonics
• Molecular Collisions: from Near-cold to Ultra-cold
• Imaging-assisted single-photon Doppler-free laser spectroscopy and the ionization energy of metastable triplet helium
• The EDIBLES survey V: Line profile variations in the $\lambda \lambda$5797, 6379, and 6614 diffuse interstellar bands as a tool to constrain carrier sizes
• Collision-induced C_60 rovibrational relaxation probed by state-resolved nonlinear spectroscopy
• General classification of qubit encodings in ultracold diatomic molecules
• Nuclear spin relaxation in cold atom-molecule collisions
• Widely tunable cavity-enhanced frequency combs
• Low-$J$ transitions in ${\tilde{A}}^2\Pi (0,0,0)-{\tilde{X}}^2{\Sigma }^{+}(0,0,0)$ band of buffer-gas-cooled CaOH
• Coherent Control of Mid-Infrared Frequency Comb by Optical Injection of Near-Infrared Light
• An air-spaced virtually imaged phased array with 94 MHz resolution for precision spectroscopy
• Probing the presence and absence of metal-fullerene electron transfer reactions in helium nanodroplets by deflection measurements
• A methane line list with sub-MHz accuracy in the 1250 to 1380 cm-1 range from optical frequency comb Fourier transform spectroscopy
• Laser Cooling Scheme for the Carbon Dimer (${}^{12}$C${}_2$)
• Highly spin-polarized molecules via collisional microwave pumping
• Roadmap on multimode light shaping
• Long-wave mid-infrared cavity-enhanced frequency comb spectroscopy of cold, complex molecules